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MIDI Maestro Musicality PPC’s Guide to getting the best MIDI sound from your soundcard You don't have to be a musician to want the best music from your computer. Most people probably play a few MIDI files from time to time - there are thousands of freebies out there on the Net - but is your PC playing them to the best of its ability? When you double-click on a MIDI file, one with a .MID extension, Windows probably launches the Windows Media Player to play it. If you have the latest version it's a large all singin' all dancin' affair. Earlier versions circa v6 were much smaller and neater and played MIDI files just as well. You can, of course, assign files with a .MID extension to another application so maybe another MIDI file player launches or, if you're a musician a sequencer could open. But that's a topic for another day The point is, the Media Player will play the file with a certain set of default settings. You can't change them from the player so it's off to the Multimedia Control Panel (Start>Settings>Control Panel>Multimedia). In Windows Me it's called Sounds and Multimedia. In Windows 98 click on the MIDI tab. In Window Me click on the Audio tab. You'll see a section or a drop-down menu containing the output the MIDI file is being played through. These are actually sets of voices or "synthesisers" onboard the card. Now if you have a fairly simple soundcard there may only be one entry here in which case there's nothing you can change it to... Samples However, many cards, such as Creative's AWE and Live! cards have more than one and you want to use the best. The best sounds are those based on samples, often called wavetable sounds. It's not always obvious from the name but all you do is select an output, play a file and you'll soon hear the difference. On the Live! cards the best output is called the A:SB Live! MIDI Synth. On the AWE it's the AWE64 MIDI Synth. The lest realistic is the Creative S/W Synth and the Creative FM Synthesiser. Having selected the biggest and beefiest MIDI synth your card has, you may be able to enhance the sound a little more if your card has built-in effects. if you're not sure, don't bother with the manual - read the box, it'll tell you. Again, using the Live! card as an example, it has an application called Environmental Audio where you can add reverb and chorus to the output. Try adding a dash of reverb - this can make the output sound bigger, as if it was recorded in a larger room such as a theatre. It's very easy to overdo this and swamp the output so take it easy. Double click on the Loudspeaker icon at the bottom right of the Sys Tray (also available from Start>Programs>Accessories>Entertainment>Volume Control). This is Windows' mixer which most people tend use even though most sound cards have their own mixer application. See if it has an Advanced button on it and click it. Bump up the Bass! Again, with our friendly Live! card this pops up a window with Bass and Treble controls on it. Boosting these both a little will add a bit more oomph to the output. But again, don't overdo it. Well, actually, you can - you're the one listening to it - but it's easy to throw the balance out so one piece may sound okay but the other sounds bottom-heavy. Finally, check the volume levels on the mixer. The MIDI and general output controls are the ones to look at. Set the MIDI volume fairly high but a notch or two off full volume. Set the main volume control to about 3/4 and then adjust the overall output with your speakers' volume control. if the speakers don't have one then use the main volume in the Mixer. Now you'll have as good a sound playing MIDI files as you can.
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